It is well known to polish ferrules and ferrule assemblies used in fiber optic connectors. The polishing of the fibers and ferrules after manufacture increases the transmission of the light signal through the fiber optic connector containing mated ferrule assemblies. Recently, advances in the ferrule assembly polishing art have evolved into polishing the front faces with a slurry (or multiple slurries) to achieve the desired characteristics. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,785 entitled "Polishing Method and Apparatus for Preferentially Etching a Ferrule Assembly and Ferrule Assembly Produced Thereby," which is incorporated herein in its entirety, discloses a method and apparatus for preferentially etching a ferrule assembly using two slurries. However, this method of polishing a ferrule is labor intensive and does not achieve the flatness of the array of optical fibers as required. After the first slurry is applied and the ferrule is polished, the ferrule assembly and machine must cleaned before the second slurry can be used. In order to clean the slurry from the ferrules, the polishing fixture holding the ferrule assemblies is removed and washed in a sink. The polishing disc must also be washed to remove any remaining slurry. The ferrule assembly and machine must again be cleaned after the second slurry is used. Additionally, the slurry and particles accumulate in crevices and alignment holes in the ferrules, requiring yet more operator cleaning. Slurry polishing of ferrules is also less than ideal for multi-mode fibers due to their softer cores. The slurry tends to preferentially polish out the centers of the fibers, leaving a concave end on the optical fibers. This concave end, or cupping effect of the fibers, prevents close physical contact of the optical fibers to be mated.